[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 171 (Tuesday, October 16, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1408]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       SALVADORAN ARCHIBISHOP OSCAR ROMERO: A SAINT FOR ALL OF US

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JAMES P. McGOVERN

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, October 16, 2018

  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, on Sunday, October 14, the Vatican 
officially canonized Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was 
assassinated on March 24, 1980, on the eve of El Salvador's 12-year 
civil war.
  In a ceremony presided over by Pope Francis, the first pope from 
Latin America, Romero will become a saint alongside Pope Paul VI, 
Italian priests Francesco Spinelli and Vincenzo Romano, German nun 
Maria Caterina Kasper, and Spanish nun Nazaria Ignazia. The 
canonizations will take place at the Vatican during the 2018 Synod of 
Bishops, a meeting of bishops from around the world that this year will 
address the topic of young people, who were much beloved by Archbishop 
Romero.
  In attendance will be many Salvadorans and Latin Americans, including 
a delegation from the United States who are current beneficiaries of 
Temporary Protected Status (TPS), an immigration status, which 
President Trump has stripped from over 260,000 Salvadorans currently 
residing legally in the United States because it's simply too dangerous 
for them to return home.
  In May 2015, I had the privilege of attending the beatification of 
Romero in San Salvador. Surrounded by many high religious and 
government officials, especially from Latin America, I was most moved 
by the hundreds of thousands of ordinary Salvadorans, many who had 
traveled for days from rural areas to attend this special mass. While 
they likely would have preferred to see him canonized in his home 
country, they can only be overjoyed that the name and message of 
``Saint Romero of the Americas'' will now be shared with the world.
  As a Catholic, I am proud of my Church for finally recognizing this 
man of God who lived his faith. As a politician, I continue to be 
inspired by Romero's example--his total commitment to the poor and his 
unwavering commitment to the dignity of every human being.
  Romero was shot through the heart by a sniper while celebrating mass 
in the chapel of the Hospital of Divine Providence, a church-run 
hospital in San Salvador specializing in cancer and care of the 
terminally ill, which still operates today and maintains as a shrine 
the humble dwelling where Romero resided on their grounds.
  He was murdered the day after he called on the Salvadoran military to 
stop killing innocent civilians at the beginning of El Salvador's civil 
war. The U.N. Truth Commission, created as part of the negotiations 
that ended that war, determined that Roberto D'Aubuisson, a former army 
major and founder of the right-wing ARENA political party, coordinated 
a death squad and ordered the assassination.
  Romero's calls to end the violence afflicting his nation and his 
solidarity with El Salvador's poor appealed to me as a college student 
in the late 1970s. I still remember learning about his murder and 
believing that this terrible crime would result in the termination of 
U.S. aid to a government and military that persecuted social justice 
activists and had no respect for human rights. Sadly, it did not.
  The U.S. continued to finance the Salvadoran armed forces for the 
next decade. While Congress expressed concern about human rights 
issues, it wasn't until Congressman Joe Moakley courageously offered 
and Congress passed an amendment in 1990 to cut aid that the blank 
check stopped. And that was after the deaths of nearly 80,000 
civilians, the murder of human rights defenders, labor leaders, nuns 
and then six Jesuit priests and two women in 1989. I traveled to El 
Salvador many times during the 1980s and saw firsthand the brutality of 
the Salvadoran government and military supported by my government. I 
felt ashamed.
  Reagan and Bush Administration officials routinely turned a blind eye 
to torture, disappearances and murder. They characterized anyone who 
questioned the human rights record of the Salvadoran government as an 
ally of the Faribundo Marti National Liberation Army (FMLN)--the armed 
opposition. They belittled and tried to discredit those--like Romero 
and the Jesuits--who dared to speak the truth.
  For Romero, the truth about El Salvador came later in his life, as he 
rose in the Church hierarchy. In the mid-1970s, he served as bishop of 
the rural diocese of Santiago de Maria, where the gap between coffee 
plantation and other landowners and campesinos was obvious. He saw for 
himself the suffering and cruel repression of the poor, which affected 
him deeply and triggered a process of reflection and change. This 
process culminated in the 1977 assassination of his close friend, 
Jesuit priest Rutilio Grande, who embraced liberation theology, which 
puts the poor and the oppressed first and prioritizes the concrete 
defense of their rights. After Grande's murder, Romero said, ``When I 
look at Rutilio lying dead I thought, 'If they have killed him for 
doing what he did, then I, too, have to walk the same path.' '' Indeed, 
Romero believed ``those committed to the poor must share the same fate 
as the poor.''
  Romero became a voice for those who had no voice; he preached that 
everyone was important. He embodied hope for the millions of people in 
El Salvador who were forgotten and the targets of repression. In his 
diaries, he wrote: ``Between the powerful and the wealthy, and the poor 
and vulnerable, who should a pastor side with? I have no doubts. A 
pastor should stay with his people.''
  To his dying day, Archbishop Romero called on us to unite in love for 
the poor, the marginalized and the forgotten. The ceremony this weekend 
will finally recognize him as a saint. It offers all of us an 
opportunity not only to reflect on Romero's life, but also to commit 
ourselves to policies aimed at peace, human rights, alleviating poverty 
and promoting non-violence in El Salvador and around the world.
  The sad fact is that El Salvador and the international community have 
largely failed in transforming Romero's words into action. We continue 
to witness thousands of young children and families fleeing Central 
American countries as a result of violence and extreme poverty. Even in 
the United States, the gap between the rich and the poor continues to 
grow and justice on too many occasions fails to work for those who are 
most disadvantaged. Hundreds of millions around the world are hungry--
even though hunger is a solvable problem; and war and violence too 
often seem to be the first choice to deal with conflicts.
  I am hopeful that the power of Romero's message can inspire new 
activism on behalf of the marginalized and the poor and a better 
understanding of their plight and struggles--in El Salvador, the United 
States and around the world. Romero reminded us, ``There are many 
things that can only be seen through eyes that have cried.'' With his 
canonization, we have an opportunity to renew our commitment and honor 
his legacy by giving a voice to the persecuted, the poor and neglected 
in every nation. Now is the time to stand on the right side of history 
and help those who need it most.

                          ____________________